New Life

I need to take a couple of days off, but I'm leaving some of my friends with you...

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This is a Mama Squirrel resting on the tree outside my window

Something caught her attention...

Three of her four babies were poking their heads out of the nesting hole in the tree for the first time. The fourth was still inside.

Two of them were enjoying their first day out, sometimes sleeping in the warmth of the sun. One was still inside...

And this one was the brave one. He got out there to explore on their first day out of the nest. A big adventure!

Eventually, two more of them followed, and left the hole to play, too. This one baby was afraid to emerge though. He would just poke his head out and stay there for hours. The other babies would come back to play near him, but he was very timid. Mama watched over him from above.

This one decided that the dead flower-tops in my planter tasted pretty good.

A few days later, Mama removed them from the nest. It was time to go out into the world. I watched her as she took the other three away, but this one refused to go. She left it alone for several hours. It just stayed in the same place, with its head poking out of the hole, waiting, and looking very alone and forlorn. Finally, Mama came back and the little squirrel, clearly relieved to see her, jumped right out of the hole to greet her.

One by one, she had taken the others to the end of a limb and they jumped off and disappeared into the woods. This time, the timid baby squirrel was a little more willing to follow Mama, and to make the brave leap into the forest to begin a new way of life. This was the last one. Taking its first steps out into the world, it made the jump successfully. Happy for their freedom, in my thoughts, I wished them well, but it was kind of a sad day for me because I wouldn't be able to watch them as closely anymore.

But, it turned out that it wasn't for long because about a week later, they all found their way back on their own. For awhile they went right back into the nest and spent their days there, but little by little, they enjoyed their newly found freedom, began to explore, and only slept inside the hole.

Now, when I look out my window, I often see cute little faces looking back at me, just like they did from their nesting hole. They still sleep in that hole in the tree outside my window. I wonder if there will be new babies this year? I guess we'll just have to wait and see! ;-)

See you in a couple of days.